The Glorft are a warmongering cyborg-cephalopodic race. They were led by Warmaster Gorrath. they are the voiced by Mick Foley (in Pilot episode Lowbrow) Clancy Brown, Kevin Michael Richardson and performed roars Steve Blum.
Physiology[]
Physically, the Glorft are easily recognised by their part-amphibian, part-cephalopod appearance with skin colouration ranging from lime green to brown. Parts of their flesh are peppered in dark spots or warts. They bear a seemingly hunchback-like posture, due to the broad shoulders being placed as high as their heads. The head is reminiscent of an eel head, but with tentacles. Their eyes are glossy red and pupil-less and their mouths are wide, filled with sharp teeth, and have at least two pairs of tentacles surrounding it[1]. Behind their temples are a row of four spiracles that might be used for breathing. Their voices are generally gruff and deep in tone, with elder individuals developing a flanging or gargling effect to their speech. They are often considered remarkably ugly by human standards. The Glorft in turn, or at least their Warmaster, regard human tastes in design and colour as awful[2]. It is not known if Glorft females exist, as none are ever seen or mentioned; furthermore it is not known how the Glorft reproduce (though given their technology and penchant for mass-production, they probably reproduce by cloning).
Glorft individuals are often seen wearing humanoid robotic suits which hide their appearance from the neck down. In the instances they are seen without a suit, one can see that they have a pair of arms, but a mass of tentacles instead of legs. However, there have been examples of Glorft who bear proper legs that terminate in short tentacles in place of feet, usually serving as elite guards. It is unknown how rare this genetic trait is among the Glorft, if this trait occurs naturally or was created artificially, or if it is seen as a symbol of high military rank or standing. Each hand has three fingers. It has not been stated whether they possess a skeleton or are invertebrates, or if their suits can serve as permanent implants akin to cybernetics. Prosthetic limbs and torso musculature have been observed.
Culture and Civilisation[]
The Gloft's culture isn't much known due to the show never divulging much into the topic (in the one time they could have, they never got the chance to). It has never been mentioned what home planet or star system they hail from. Their diet is not known[3], let alone if they still retain the need to eat or drink but it is shown that they can consume human foods as shown when Gorrath ate a philly cheesesteak and drank a Slusshie to psychologically torture Coop. What is known is that they are a militaristic war-driven race that conquer and enslave all through relentless yet strategic invasions. They seem to view mammalian life in particular as "filthy", repulsive, and inferior to them; humans for example are said to have a "hideous biological design"[4]. It has not been made apparent if they always had this mindset or if this behaviour had been imposed and imprinted on the Glorft populace by their leaders over time. Considering how much influence Gorrath seems to hold, it can be assumed the rank of "Warmaster" is the Glorft equivalent of a Field Marshal.
Glorft technology appears to be very advanced, yet retain a crude nature about them. They are noted for their gritty industrial might and strong affinity for engineering and robotics, which carries over to their military bulk being mostly based on massive mass-produced robots which can be either autonomous or controlled from the inside. These mecha are usually humanoid in shape (which is odd considering the Glorft themselves are mostly non-humanoid), but some are quadruped or shaped like animals, presumably native to the Glorft homeworld. Warmaster Gorrath's first-onscreen personal mecha in particular has shown the capability to configure into an arachnid-like form, and a combining mecha referred to as the "U.M.D." is made up of six robots entering and assimilating into six much larger robots forming one unit, which in turn leads to at least six of those units joining together to form the limbs and body, with the Warmaster's mecha reconfiguring itself to form the U.M.D.'s head unit. Glorft technology also includes plasma, beam, and thermonuclear weaponry (usually in the form of giant miniguns), hover tanks, electromagnetic shielding, huge starships, huge weapons, and holographic simulators. The thick, angular, blocky, and crude designs of Glorft armour and tech may remind some of the Orks of Warhammer 40,000, serving as a visual contrast to the sleekness and curvatures of Earth Coalition technology. Their machines are tough enough to withstand orbital drops and atmospheric re-entry.[5]
Despite the Glorft having numerous weapons in their arsenal, the ones they tend to utilise the most are the standard green-grey-yellow giant mecha that rival the size of Megas. These robots tend to vary slightly in design per appearance but are almost always digitigrade (more mechas shared a plantigrade design in season 2) with the same hunched-like posture as the Glorft and head designs that generally resemble them, back or shoulder-mounted missile tube launchers, and giant beam miniguns often in the place of three-clawed hands. The aforementioned U.M.D. mecha is roughly 20 times Megas's size (though after its formation the next scene greatly exaggerates this as to have Megas stand on its hand, appearing almost 100 times Megas's size then) and was stated to have been undefeated by anyone prior to Megas.[6]
Due to the fact that the Glorft Coop faces come from the future, naturally their technological prowess is centuries ahead of everyone else, with only a relative few being able to match them. They are a spacefaring race that are capable of travel between dimensions, hyperspace travel, and have a variety of defence systems and weapons onboard their battleships. However, they cannot time travel, as they acknowledge it to be a theoretical capability and thus they believe it not possible to practically achieve.[7] They also had a planet destroying weapon, though Coop had inadvertently destroyed it. The Glorft mothership's name is transliterated as "Karajor"[8] and is capable of transforming itself into a giant mecha mode dubbed "Eradicator" to bring mass devastation with twin oversized arm beam cannons directly connected to its Null-Space drive.[9] After taking critical damage, Karajor was rebuilt using stockpiles of scrap materials and tech from worlds that have been conquered by the Glorft, showing a degree of resourcefulness. It is never mentioned if other motherships existed, though as Karajor is considered Gorrath's personal ship[10], it can be concluded that other high-ranking military leaders (if there are any) each captain a mothership of their own. It is presumed that motherships and other starships provide extensive means to create new armaments and continuously mass-produce robots to replace lost ones in a short span of time.
Despite their military prowess, the Glorft are somewhat dependent upon their command hierarchy, and lower-ranking Glorft lack initiative. This was illustrated in the series finale when Coop and Warmaster Glorft were teleported into an alternate timeline. The remaining Glorft army, lacking direction, did not proceed to attack the defenseless Jamie and Kiva (who had been outside of Megas, disarming a Glorft superweapon,) and instead waited around aimlessly. And when Coop and Gorrath returned to confront Evil Coop and Evil Kiva and their army from another dimension, the Glorft army followed their Warmaster's orders to fight alongside Coop although the Glorft Commander expressed some reluctance at first but complied anyway.
History[]
Glorft ships during the Battle of the Last Stand
In the distant future, the Glorft declared and engaged in war against the humans, which raged over the years in the 31st century, including the Battle of the Last Stand in the year 3035.[11] It is not known which side made the first encounter.
According to Warmaster Gorrath, under his leadership the Glorft race has succeeded in the conquest of over 8 systems (whether this meant stellar or galactic systems was not made clear) over the course of at least 100 wars.[12] It is presumed that similar accomplishments were made by past heads of military prior to Gorrath's ascension.
The Glorft originally built Megas as a prototype mecha called "Avatar" to serve as a coup de grâce to humanity, but it was ultimately captured by the Earth Coalition before it could be launched. Commander Kiva Andru modified Megas for human-use to turn her enemy's ultimate weapon into the tool of their own destruction. In retaliation, the Glorft attacked the lunar base Megas was held in and wiped out its defenders in an attempt to recapture the prototype. Realising the battle had been lost, Kiva attempted to send Megas to the past, where the Battle of the Last Stand against the Glorft occurred. Unfortunately due to the Glorft's firepower, which also destroyed its head and cockpit, Megas was sent too far back into the past.[13]
The Glorft followed Megas's signal in a last ditch attempt to recapture it, with Warmaster Gorrath refusing to heed his men's warnings about the dangers of time travel[14]. Despite their failure to retake Megas from Coop, the Glorft discovered they were unable to return to their proper time, as the Karajor (the only starship to make it through) was not equipped with any technology necessary for time travel[15]. They came to the conclusion that the only way to return home was to recapture the prototype (ignorant/unaware of the fact Coop had destroyed the time travel system beyond repair) and from then onward, the Glorft swore to take back Megas at all cost.
Although unable to travel through time, the Glorft spent the majority of their downtime in Null-Space, a dimension between dimensions, where they would plot their schemes and re-arm themselves for battle.
The Glorft trapped in 2004 were thought to be wiped out and permanently banished to Null-Space after the events of The Driver's Seat, but the explosion of a matter-antimatter drive caused by a mecha Coop defeated and threw into space to dispose of it creates a rift in space-time that frees the Glorft from their imprisonment, returning with replenished forces and Karajor repaired and refitted with a radically different design incorporating tech and scrap materials from civilisations plundered in their past.[16] The Glorft's plan to ram the Moon onto Earth with a giant engine built onto the lunar surface was found out and foiled by Coop, Kiva, Jamie, and Skippy, sending the Glorft retreating back into Null-Space once again, but voluntarily this time.
Gorrath and the Glorft appeared in ten episodes, including the pilot and the 2-part finale where they assisted Coop to defeat Evil Coop and his army.[17] Afterwards, the Warmaster calls a truce with Coop for the time being, though he promises he won't stop trying to recapture Megas.
Notable Glorft[]
Warmaster Gorrath, a veteran Glorft individual
- Gorrath
- Glorft Commander
- U.M.D
- Mecha-Megas's engineer
- Glorft-Robot
- Glorft-Scientists
- Glorft Navigator
- Glorft Dispatcher
- Glorft Crewman
Trivia[]
- U.M.D. is presumably an acronym for "Ultimate Mass Destroyer".
- As stated earlier, the bulky and crude designs of Glorft armour combined with their warmongering nature may give them a passing resemblance to Warhammer 40,000's Orks in superficial appearance, though the original intention was to provide a visual foil to the rounded, sleek machines of the Earth Coalition.
- Further more, Gorrath's title of Warmaster maybe a nod to the similarly named military title from Warhammer 40,000, which was held by Horus before his rebellion against the Emperor of Mankind.
- The mothership's transformation and subsequent redesign is a homage to either the titular mecha of the 1982 series Super Dimension Fortress Macross, or the Transformers characters known as Fortress Maximus and Metroplex.
- Examples of mentioned tech used by the Glorft (that aren't vehicles) include "Tritanium", "Mk-VII inversion thrusters", "Null-Space generators", and "Hyperthrust fusion engine".
- According to the series creator (the Glorft Scientist), had the show gone on for a third season, one of the stories that was considered was a revelation that Coop is somehow involved or responsible for the creation of the Glorft (Mecha Megas).
- Glorft is a reference to the Universal Century Principality of Zeon and its successor Neo Zeon from the Gundam universe.
Gallery[]
References[]
- ↑ Apparently referred to as "jhorblochs" in the native Glorft language, according to Test Drive
- ↑ Test Drive; "Urrrrgh... what an awful camouflage pattern!" - Warmaster Gorrath
- ↑ It most definitely does not consist of Philly cheesesteaks, judging from Gorrath's hilariously pained expression when he tries to eat one while interrogating Coop.
- ↑ The Driver's Seat
- ↑ The Fat and the Furious
- ↑ Test Drive; "I've fought it before, there's no way to beat it." - Kiva Andru
- ↑ Test Drive; "A time warp? That's impossible, that sort of technology is only theoretical. Earthers can't even tell time, let alone travel through it!" - Warmaster Gorrath
- ↑ File:Glorft_mothershipname.png
- ↑ The Driver's Seat
- ↑ Rearview Mirror, Mirror; "How dare you treat me like this aboard my own ship!" - Warmaster Gorrath, upon being incarcerated within the Karajor ruins
- ↑ Kiva Andru
- ↑ The Driver's Seat
- ↑ Test Drive
- ↑ Test Drive; "If we fall into it without any sort of temporal guidance system or coordinates, who knows where we may end up. We will be helpless and blind." - the Glorft Commander
- ↑ Test Drive; "Sir, we can't return. Once we dropped out of the time anomaly, we became stranded here in Earth's past." - the Glorft Commander
- ↑ Don't Tell Mom The Babysitter's Coop
- ↑ Cartoon Network Pilot Episode (Test Drive), Test Drive, The Fat and the Furious, TV Dinner, Dude, Where's My Head?, The Driver's Seat, Don't Tell Mom The Babysitter's Coop, Terminate Her, Rearview Mirror, Mirror